Winter Landscape Near Vordingborg, Denmark

Title

Winter Landscape Near Vordingborg, Denmark

Artist

Eric Glaser

Medium

Painting - Oil On Canvas

Description

"Winter Landscape near Vordingborg, Denmark"

Artist: Johan Christian Dahl (Norwegian, 1788-1857)

Title: Winter Landscape near Vordingborg, Denmark

Object Type: Painting

Genre: Landscape Art

Date: 1829

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Dimensions: Height: 1,730 mm (68.11 in); Width: 2,055 mm (80.90 in)

Collection: National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark

Object History: Acquired 1829

Johan Christian Claussen Dahl, often known as J. C. Dahl or I. C. Dahl, was a Norwegian artist who is considered the first great romantic painter in Norway, the founder of the "golden age" of Norwegian painting, and, by some, one of the greatest European artists of all time. He is often described as "the father of Norwegian landscape painting" and is regarded as the first Norwegian painter to reach a level of artistic accomplishment comparable to that attained by the greatest European artists of his day. He was also the first to acquire genuine fame and cultural renown abroad. As one critic has put it, "J.C. Dahl occupies a central position in Norwegian artistic life of the first half of the 19th century.

Although Dahl spent much of his life outside of Norway, his love for his country is clear in the motifs he chose for his paintings and in his extraordinary efforts on behalf of Norwegian culture generally.

Golden Age landscapes tended to celebrate nature at its most peaceful and harmonious. This is also true in this case, where the Norwegian artist Dahl painted a large winter scene for the Christiansborg Palace, commissioned by Frederik VI. Here we find no great drama or untamed forces of nature, which were favourite motifs of Dahl in other works. He has, how ever, imbued his rendition of the Danish country side with a strongly Romantic feel that is nowhere to be found in the work of his contemporary Danish colleague Eckersberg. Dahl played an active part on the Danish art scene, and to Eckersberg's students Dahl's paintings offered a Romantic and evocative contrast to their tutor's sober, stringent art. Winter motifs are unusual within Danish landscape painting as the Danish artists and their clients both preferred summer scenes.

Despite the cold and snow, nature does not seem threatening or unwelcoming here. The hunter walking across the fields with his dog is never far away from the warm comforts of the thatched cottage, a plume of smoke rising from its chimney. Dahl painted the large winter scene for the Christiansborg Palace, a commission by King Frederik VI. Here, Dahl adapted his impressions from German atmospheric, Romantic landscapes to suit Danish sensibilities. The key element of the painting is the dolmen in the foreground by the foot of the old oak trees. The ancient burial mound and trees both connect past and present. Dahl quite deliberately chose to show a mound that had been disturbed and partially ruined to remind us to care for the relics of our past.

Text Credit: Google Arts & Culture, SMK

This is a Google Art Project image, thank you Google!

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Additional image editing by Eric Glaser

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July 18th, 2020

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